PCB plans new expert to guard players from fixers

Pakistan's former test fast bowler Mohammad Asif talks to reporters in Lahore, Pakistan on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. Asif says his appeal against a seven-year ban will be heard in Court of Arbitration for Sport in Feb. 2013. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Bryan Maneafaiga poses for a portrait in Richmond, Calif., Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. With uneven testing for steroids and inconsistent punishment, college football players are packing on significant weight _ in some cases, 30 pounds or more in a single year _ without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams. But looking solely at the most significant weight gainers also ignores players like Maneafaiga. In the summer of 2004, Maneafaiga was an undersized 180-pound running back trying to make the University of Hawaii football team. Twice, once in pre-season and once in the fall, he failed school drug tests, showing up positive for marijuana use. What surprised him was that the same tests turned up negative for steroids. He’d started injecting stanozolol, a steroid, in the summer to help bulk up to a roster weight of 200 pounds. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Bryan Maneafaiga poses for a portrait in Richmond, Calif., Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. With uneven testing for steroids and inconsistent punishment, college football players are packing on significant weight _ in some cases, 30 pounds or more in a single year _ without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams. But looking solely at the most significant weight gainers also ignores players like Maneafaiga. In the summer of 2004, Maneafaiga was an undersized 180-pound running back trying to make the University of Hawaii football team. Twice, once in pre-season and once in the fall, he failed school drug tests, showing up positive for marijuana use. What surprised him was that the same tests turned up negative for steroids. He’d started injecting stanozolol, a steroid, in the summer to help bulk up to a roster weight of 200 pounds. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

FILE - In this Jan. 2, 1984, file photo, Los Angeles Raiders Lyle Alzado gives a fist of victory after the Raiders beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in playoff fooball game in Los Angeles. With uneven testing for steroids and inconsistent punishment, college football players are packing on significant weight _ in some cases, 30 pounds or more in a single year _ without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams Football's most infamous steroid user was Alzado, who became a star NFL defensive end in the 1970s and 80s before he admitted to juicing his entire career. He started in college, where the 190-pound freshman gained 40 pounds in one year. It was a 21 percent jump in body mass, a tremendous gain that far exceeded what researchers have seen in controlled, short-term studies of steroid use by athletes. Alzado died of brain cancer in 1992. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - This July 30, 2011, file photo, shows Ben Lamaak of the Oakland Raiders NFL football team. With uneven testing for steroids and inconsistent punishment, college football players are packing on significant weight _ in some cases, 30 pounds or more in a single year _ without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams. Lamaak, who arrived at Iowa State in 2006, said he weighed 225 pounds in high school and 262 pounds in the summer of his freshman year on the Cyclones football team. A year later, official rosters showed the former basketball player from Cedar Rapids weighed 306, a gain of 81 pounds since high school. He graduated as a 320-pound offensive lineman and said he did it all naturally. "I was just a young kid at that time, and I was still growing into my body,” he said. “It really wasn't that hard for me to gain the weight. I had fun doing it. I love to eat. It wasn't a problem." (AP Photo)

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistan Cricket Board is working on a plan to send a "vigilance expert" with its team to England for The Champions Trophy to help ward off potential match fixers.

Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and former captain Salman Butt are serving lengthy bans after being implicated in a spot-fixing scandal during Pakistan's last tour of England in 2010.

A PCB official told The Associated Press on Wednesday there is a proposal to send a vigilance expert to the Champions Trophy along with a security official.

"The purpose of sending a vigilance expert is to monitor the presence of any unwanted men around the team in England," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to comment on the subject.

"The vigilance officer will not be undercover and if he goes to England he will be part of the team management."

Security manager Waseem Ahmed has been travelling with the team since being appointed soon after the spot-fixing scandal.

The PCB official also said the vigilance officer will not be tapping the phones of the players, but "ensure there's no unwanted men coming close to the players during their stay in England."

Pakistan starts its Champions Trophy campaign against the West Indies on June 7 at The Oval with South Africa and India its other opponents in Group B. Group A consists of defending champion Australia, England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

During its last tour of England Asif, Amir and Butt conspired with businessman Mazhar Majeed to ensure players bowled deliberate no-balls at pre-arranged times during the test match at Lord's.

Soon after the tour the then security manager Khawaja Najam resigned and later recorded his statement regarding three players' involvement in spot-fixing with the ICC anti-corruption tribunal in Doha.

This time around, it seems the PCB doesn't want to take any chances and hopes to avoid a repeat of the 2010 scandal.

Pakistan has been hit hard by fixing scandals over the last 14 years.

Former captain Salim Malik had his life ban overturned last year by a court in Lahore after a PCB board of inquiry in 2000 found he influenced the result of international matches.

Only last week the PCB banned international umpire Nadeem Ghauri for four years over corruption charges after a sting operation carried out by and Indian television channel last year.